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Friday, January 15, 2016

A Few More Gnomes....

Now that everyone and his or her brother claims to be a travel writer, it's high time to improve the craft. The response to a recent column I re-posted on travel writing taboos makes it clear that there's a demand for more travel writing advice. So, here goes.

GNOME

ashort,pithyexpressionofageneraltruth;aphorism Let's talk more about the gnomes of bad travel writing. First, however, let me note that during the course of two decades of travel writing, a sharp-eyed reader might discover I have employed a gno-gno (except #1 below) on rare occasion. No one's perfect, but I try to avoid them like the plague (click link for my commentary on cliches). ------------------1. Can a destination have something for everyone? NO, NO and NOThe Lake Lucerne region has something for everyone (e-mail from Lucerne Tourism)Spain has something for everyone (a powerpoint presentation shown at Academic Travel Abroad)There'ssomething for everyone in Santa Barbara's wine country (Destination California supplement in Meetings and Conventions) Quintana Roo (Mexico) has something for everyone (Travel Weekly) Who knew? However, I beg to differ. Lake Lucerne does not have a nude beach; Spain does not have a desert; Santa Barbara's wine country does not have skiing; nor, for that matter, does Quintana Roo. No matter how amazing a place is, I defy you, dear reader, to find a location that actually has something for everyone. If you are an aspiring travel writer, my #1 piece of advice is to NEVER use this lazy phrase.2. Awkward uses of wordsWhile technically correct, writers often use words that are passé, grammatically questionable, or of questionable connotation. For example, I recently read that "Northern California is fraught with something for everyone, offering meeting planners all they could ever wish for." Let's ignore for a minute that my favorite phrase is used, and that the sentence ends in a preposition. As soon as I read the word fraught, my heart starts beating faster. True, it officially is defined as filled or laden, but in common parlance, it is usually used with a negative connotation (the mission was fraught with danger, it was a fraught situation). Therefore, using the word to connote a beneficial thing seems off. Similarly, a 20-something travel writer, in discussing his visit to Estonia, talks about the Communistic era. Yes, communistic is a word, officially, but never, in 20 years of writing about Eastern Europe, had I ever seen the word used. Try to redline words that make readers stop in their tracks. 3. RedundancyRe·dun·dan·cy[ri-duhn-duhn-see]Show IPA

noun,pluralre·dun·dan·cies.

1. Superfluous repetition or overlapping, especially of two words.

How about truly unique, absolutely essential, or old adage? I'd go on, but I don't want to be redundant.

Whether you love ice skating or swimming; whether you are into history or metallurgy; whether you are a man, woman or hermaphrodite, it is absolutely essential (see #3) to see Destination X. The whether/or construction is simply overused in travel writing. See whether or not you can avoid it.

1 comment:

Laura, these are all excellent gno-gnos to note. I am sure I have used all of them or ones similar at some point. The one item that makes my hair stand is the ending of a sentence with a preposition. I see this often, many times used by well respected writers and in top-level magazines, and I wonder if I was the only one that had it drilled into my head by my high school English teachers to never end a sentence with a preposition!

About Laura

Veteran journalist Laura Powell has covered the world of travel for more than 25 years. She currently is the luxury correspondent for Skift, the top publication for travel industry insiders. She is also a fixture on the Washington, D.C. media scene, appearing regularly on Great Day Washington on WUSA-TV/CBS. She also writes travel supplements for The Washington Post.
Elsewhere in print, her work has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, USA Today and several airline magazines. Online, her work appears on Orbitz Blog and CNN.com.

Laura started covering travel for CNN. After serving as one of the original producers of CNN International, she moved into travel by creating the network's TravelGuide program. Laura then reported on travel for CNN for nearly five years. Since leaving CNN, Laura has become a nationally-recognized travel expert, having appeared on scores of television and radio programs.
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